I came across some scripture that, at first, seemed kind of confusing. There are a couple of places that mention this:

Proverbs 25:22

“For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward you.”

Romans 12:20

“Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst, give him drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.”

Does this mean that they will be punished somehow? When you look at this, without really thinking, it appears that by doing this, it will punish your enemy somehow. I don’t think this is what is really meant here. Back in these times, there were things called braziers, which were metal pans used to hold lit coals. These were used to heat the home, for light, and to cook small meals with. If someone came to you and asked you for food, that was one thing. There might or might not be food shortages. Coals, on the other hand, were more scarce than food. By giving someone some of your coals, you might starve to death or even freeze in the winters. I believe that God wants us to give even of our coals. By giving even our enemies basic living requirements, it might change their view on life. Even if it didn’t change them, it might show others the way in which Christians are supposed to live.

There are some other verses around these that support this theory:

Matthew 5:43-46

43“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. 44But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. 45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. 46For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans do the same?”

What do you think this means?

It means that it’s easy to love those that love us and to do good things to those that do the same to us. It is really hard to do something nice for someone who hates us, uses us, and does nothing good in return. He asks us to do so anyway. By doing so, we prove our love for everyone around us, and prove that God loves everyone even more than we ever could.

Something else to think about here:

In the days and times of the first Christians, you have to realize that people were making a HUGE change by becoming Christians. They didn’t just get up in church and have a bunch of people pray for them, as is the way things happen in the United States in most places. These people would lose their jobs, their homes, and sometimes their very lives by professing to live in the name of Jesus! They were openly persecuted by both Jews and Romans. The Jews would disown anyone who followed Jesus. Any land, property, or money they would be entitled to was instantly gone. They were ostracized by everyone who wasn’t Christian.

I wonder how many of us Christians would still profess to be Christians if their very lives depended on the answer. Would you still claim to be Christian if it meant losing your job, your house, being imprisoned, or even being killed for your faith?

Ending Prayer

Heavenly Father:

Guide us, your children, to be an example to others in how to be Christians. Let us show the world how to truly love one another, and not just those that love us. Humble our hearts so that we may love our neighbors: friend and foe alike. I ask that you give strength to our brothers and sisters being persecuted all over the world for their faith in your son. If we are able to help anyone in some way Father, give us the opportunity to do so. Let us be the light upon the darkness, and never be afraid to declare you our God. In Jesus name… Amen

Abortion is one of the most fought over topics these days. Some people are pro-choice, while others are pro-life. Either way you stack it, it’s a hot topic.

In my mind, there is only one reason why a child should ever be aborted… if having the child endangers the life of the mother.

I’m a guy, so I cannot pretend to understand the complexities of carrying another human being inside my body. I can’t begin to fathom the type of bond this creates between a mother and child.

I do, however, know that it is wrong to take a life without just cause. It’s my opinion that once a child is conceived, it is a human being in the making. To stop that process prematurely is tantamount to murder. You’re taking a life or, at the very least, taking away the possibility of life.

Some believe that if a woman is raped, the baby was forced on them and therefore has no rights. The part about the baby being forced upon them is true enough. As for the rest, however, I must disagree. We can debate when a child is considered a child all day long. I must ask, however, what fault the child has in any part of this? The child did not ask to be born, and should not have to pay the ultimate price for what someone else gets to decide.

Adoption seems a much better choice to me. I get it. Not everyone is cut out to be a parent. Why must the child pay for this fact though? There are so many people out there who cannot have children. Why not alleviate your problem while also helping someone else get through theirs? It just seems like the logical choice to me.

Feel free to agree or disagree. This is how I feel. If you can give me a good enough reason for why an unborn child should not get the same chance at life as any other… then maybe I’ll change my stance. I doubt anyone can get me to see the other side of this one, but you never know.

I know I told some of you that my next post would be about gun control, (it’s almost ready) but I feel this topic is more important: Happiness is a choice.

I’ve alluded to this in some of my other posts, but never really explained it. It’s all about perspective and choices. All of life is really. I’ve seen some of the most downtrodden people look around and smile. Some people are in so much pain and could die any day, and yet they smile at people around them.

How can people do that? Speaking from my own experiences, when the world knocks you down, you have two choices: get back up or roll over and cry about it. You can spend all your energy bitching about it, hoping things miraculously get better, or you can spend that energy moving forward and make the most of what you have.

If you’re one of the first, I wish you well, but your problem isn’t going to go away until you confront it. It might be scary, it might be hard, but the best things in life are hard, and you learn more from them than anything else. “That’s just not fair!” Who told you that life was fair?

If you’re one of the other ones, find other people like you that want to make things better and encourage one another. Part of the reason for starting this blog site was to have a way to vent. The other part is to help encourage, inspire, and maybe educate others that are trying to become better people. I’ve had various jobs over the years, but the thing that matters most is that I try to be my best at whatever I do.

When people are young, they are making some of the most important decisions they will ever make in their lives. They will decide how important people are to them. They will decide how important material things are to them. (Things like brand names, types of shoes or clothing, and cars) This is also the time when they decide to be introverts or extroverts, honest it dishonest, kind or mean, loving or hateful.

What kind of people you allow in your life is a choice. What kind of profession you like or want to be is a choice. Everything in life is a choice, and all these choices help determine what makes you happy. Therefore, happiness is a choice.

Knowing this makes a huge impact on your life. Once you start to realize that your attitude towards life helps to determine your level of happiness, you can make other decisions that change your perspective. Perspective is everything. If you grew up never having seen poverty, and you made less than everyone you know, you might feel badly about that. If you made less than everyone in a nice neighborhood, you would probably feel differently about that, especially if you’d ever known poverty.

That’s why you need to make better decisions, so that you are happier with how things in your life turn out.

Okay everyone, bare with me on this one. It might seem like I’m rambling or all over the place on this one, but there is definitely a point here.

As I’m sure people are aware, with all the advances in modern medicine, people are able to live significantly longer. For some people, this is a blessing. They are able to share their knowledge and experience with others, see more advances, and watch their grandchildren grow to be adults. For others though, living to be old isn’t all that great. Dementia, alzheimers disease, cancer, and a host of other problems, being old can really suck.

We live in a country that believes in the “Sanctity of Life”. What this means is that life is more important than choice. We, as people, do not have the right to end our own life. We must endure and struggle on. Personally, I call bullshit.

Within my post the Meaning of Life, I allude to my reason for writing it. I will now go more in depth. As anyone who knows me and my views, I am forever talking about knowing yourself. Knowing who you are is the key to knowing what you want, knowing what is truly important to you, and knowing what kinds of people you want in your life. I also talk about religion in the post. I do so in such a way as to get people to think about religion in a different way. I am not trying to get people to totally question their beliefs. What I want people to do is to think about why they believe the way they do.

The Meaning of Life

By: The Ghost in the Machine

What is the meaning of life? What happens to us when we die? Where do we come from and why are we here? The age old questions. Mankind, over countless generations, has tried to answer these questions in many different ways. We, as a species, have always tried to figure out our place in the grand scheme of things… the unlimited Universe.